Good News! YouTube Creators Can Now Use Licensed Music

Youtube gives Youtuber a chance to use licensed music. (photo: doc. Youtube)

JAKARTA - For more than a decade content creators have struggled to make music on their own videos or royalty-free music. But now YouTube has allowed content creators to use officially licensed songs.

In conjunction with the Made on YouTube event, the company announced Creator Music, a new digital storefront that gives content creators access to license popular music for use in their videos, and generate revenue for themselves and music rights holders.

"(In the past) it was difficult for content creators to license music. It was complex, it took time, and it took them away from the creativity they put into their craft. (Creator Music) offered an easy way for them to do so while still enjoying monetization opportunities , "said vice president of music licensing at YouTube, Christophe Muller.

In the Creator Music program, content creators have several options to license tracks directly and keep all revenue (besides the 45 percent cut YouTube takes) or share revenue with licensees.

Quoted from Billboard, Wednesday, September 21, the share was 27.5 percent each for video creators and artists.

YouTube has reached deals with more than 50 labels, publishers, and distributors, though so far, it doesn't appear to be a major label.

Creator Music is a breath of fresh air for content creators, because so far content creators have only used limited royalty-free music, so that their videos are not demonetized.

Using a small number of songs by a major artist without permission results in the creator's video being blocked or largely muted. However, the new program is still in beta in the United States, and plans to expand to other countries next year.